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markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Mark
@markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
33 followers 23 following 160 posts
I dreamed that characters of my unfinished stories begged me to finish those tales, otherwise their worlds would be destroyed.

So for them, I write.
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markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Central Office's command was law, enforced by the soulless Reclaimers.

Until now, no one dared to fight back. But Red hadn't been given a choice.

From The Reclaimed, chapter 9: Spares

#WIPSnips #writingCommunity
Where were they? A spire exploded. I turned to the sound and stone shrapnel smashed against me, deflected by my chestplate. The impact rang through my frame. Then a long stone shard punctured my visor. The world flickered. A Reclaimer burst through the cloud of dust and slammed into me with its shoulder. I flew backward, my panels grinding against gravel. The Reclaimer pounced onto me and grabbed my left chestplate, peeling it open. My designation tag ripped free, sent flying through the air. Every circuit in my body flared with pain. The Reclaimer thrust its hand at my chest cavity with a crunch. My palm plate twisted under the machine’s fist. I held it tight and pushed hard. Neither of us budged against the other. I reached to my visor with my free hand. The stone shard scraped against my optics as I pulled it free, sending lines of static across my vision. I loosened my grip on the Reclaimer’s fist and rolled sideways, sending it to the ground. I thrust the shard into the Reclaimer’s visor and something broke on the other side. I drove the shard deeper. The Reclaimer released me and fell backwards.
December 23, 2025 at 3:00 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
How do folks find beta readers? Are there online reading/writing groups? Do you invite close friends?

#WritingCommunity
December 22, 2025 at 4:40 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Even after being cast into metal and having no memory of their human lives, the RAILs still seek expression. They still have stories to tell.

And they still fight.

#WIPSnips #writingCommunity
I followed Marigold through a village of identical squat, gray buildings. I noticed differences now that I hadn’t caught while speeding through with Eight-Six. Several had been painted. Most designs were simple and geometric, stripes, overlapping squares, or angled bands of color. Others showed entire scenes of mountains, oceans, or fields of flowers. I lingered on a large mural that covered an entire wall. A RAIL unit stood alone on a hill, holding a pickaxe high above its head. Hundreds of RAILs stood surrounded it, their fists raised.
December 22, 2025 at 2:36 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
I don’t know why but query rejections sting a lot more this time around.

#writingCommunity #amQuerying
December 21, 2025 at 6:19 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
I'm thinking of the next project. There's the one where the CEOs are ghouls who force return-to-office so they can leech our souls, or the one where the media uses frequencies to make us forget the news as they report it.

Then there's this, The Last Scrollkeeper.

#writingCommunity
The Last Scrollkeeper
Chicago to PDX is a long flight, a few hours that can feel like an entire day. Almost a year ago today, this was my return flight from an…
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December 19, 2025 at 3:25 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Nobody *wants* to have their consciousness stuffed into a robot. The company says they're all criminals - but what crime would lead to this?

#WIPSnips #writingCommunity #amQuerying
“You think Prime lied about us being criminals?” “I don’t think Prime’s orientation process can lie.” “This is where you offer your theory,” I guessed. Eight-Six laughed. “You don’t put all of your antisocial-types in the same room if you want them to work together and follow your rules. So I don’t think that’s what we are.” That was a relief, at least. “The powers-that-be still needed a labor force,” he went on. “Nobody volunteers for this, and the bar to force someone was too high. So what do you do?” “Lower the bar,” I realized. Absurd to say out loud, but it wasn’t like anything had been normal since I woke up. “Exactly!” Eight-Six let the idea simmer. “It could have been anything. Maybe I had an accident, maybe you had too much debt, maybe someone clicked the wrong box on a form. But you know what? Maybe it’s better this way. It’s working out pretty well for me.”
December 19, 2025 at 2:10 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
They sure do want us to be distracted this week.
December 18, 2025 at 10:56 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Red learns why being a Shiny is special, and what survival costs in this new life.

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #amQuerying
I leaned into Cyan. “What’s going on?” “Recalls and reclamations,” Midnight answered instead. “Back in the day, if something took one of us out of service, Doc could at least use us for parts. Hell, I’ve got six RAILs keeping me from falling apart.” That caught me by surprise. I looked around the table for a reaction, but instead they each held up fingers: two for Cyan, three for Ballad. Fable paused, counting invisible numbers in the air, then shrugged. Then there was me. The replacement with no borrowed parts. The shiny. “Now?” Midnight continued, “Central puts a reclamation order out as soon as they see your signal goes dark. Request a repair job that needs more than a few joints or a squirt of oil and they put a recall on you.”
December 18, 2025 at 2:54 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
I’d love to find an agent with “robots as a stand-in for Workers’ Rights” on their MSWL.

#amQuerying
December 17, 2025 at 8:38 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Following my kiddo’s advice, I’m rewriting a character’s arc.

I shouldn’t be allowed to do this. I’m reaching back and changing history, completely altering everything that makes someone who they are.

It’s too much power for any person to hold over another.

#WritingCommunity
December 16, 2025 at 4:17 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Are we still doing that thing where people get fired for condoning political violence?
December 16, 2025 at 12:07 AM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
My 14 year old, otherwise known as the best beta reader ever, insists my first book is my better effort and offered advice to fix it.

I’d given up on it, but he thinks if I rewrite one POV to include more action that it solves a lot of issues.

He’s been pretty spot on so far.

#WritingCommunity
December 15, 2025 at 5:11 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
They've reached their destination, only to find they weren't the first.

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #AmQuerying
The tower rose tall, sleek, and featureless, broken only by a rectangular opening that jutted from its base. Sunflower followed the smooth face upward. It bent forward ever so slightly, looming over them, demanding obedience. The front opening had been damaged. A heavy door hung crooked on its track, bent and pocked with black scorch marks. “Bombs?” Cyan asked, tracing the burns with his fingers. “Sunflower, was this from before?” Marigold asked. She moved in for a closer look, shaking her head. “We didn’t get this far. Must be recent.” “No,” Cyan pointed at the ground, the entryway blanketed by gravel. “It would’ve taken a long time for the wind to do this.” They exchanged uneasy looks.
December 15, 2025 at 2:34 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Sunflower kept to her forge, hiding from the connections that ended with pain.

And yet budding hope pulls her forward, past her memories and trauma, toward a future worth protecting.

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #AmQuerying
Sunflower soaked in the solitude, leaning into it until she could bear her own weight again. When she looked up, she saw someone standing in the alley, with yellow-orange plates much like her own. Marigold greeted her with two raised fingers and a warm smile. Sunflower’s knees threatened to buckle. The sprout wiggled and stretched, dragging her into the alley. She passed the mural without a glance, not needing the painting to remember the scene. She only needed to close her eyes. Then the crowd roared to life. Her friend rallied them before they marched through the crystal spires. Cheers, shouts, cries, screams. Metal smashing, twisting, groaning. Soulless machines demanding their obedience, desperation compelling them onward.
December 12, 2025 at 7:25 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Who we want to be is not always who we are.

#WIPSnips #AmQuerying
Then she saw what had been dodging her since she first approached the table. It had seemed to be a simple thing at first, hovering at the edge of her thoughts, until it finally came crashing down. Everything she saw in herself, all that she aspired to be, peeled away, and she saw herself in full. Fable would do the same. To protect ND-12, her friends, her entire family, she would turn the machine against every station. She’d killed for them, been mutilated in their defense, her life nearly drained from her in exile so she could bring them an army of their own.
December 11, 2025 at 6:49 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
The good news: EKG is clean, I just need to take it easy for a few days.

The bad news: I’ve reached the stage in life where all the doctors are too young
December 8, 2025 at 7:26 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
I think I experienced actual shock from pain this morning. Was absolutely dripping sweat, nearly threw up, got incredibly lightheaded and then blacked out. Glad my wife was already there so I sort of just slumped into her but it was something else.

-5/10 would not recommend
December 7, 2025 at 7:57 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
My 14 year old says this book is a lot better than my first.

Is there a way this kid could be my agent?

#WritingCommunity #WriteSky #AmQuerying
December 5, 2025 at 10:19 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
I deleted over 300 instances of the word “just” in this pass. Straight up deleted, and the sentence was fine without it. That’s just crazy.

#WriteSky
December 5, 2025 at 2:39 AM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
It’s cold, because Wisconsin.

I consume cough drops like candy, because see above.

Breathing in the cold and that menthol is like inhaling dragon fire.
December 4, 2025 at 7:52 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
“This is an exciting premise with a promising start, but the literary voice isn’t a match for me.”

It sounds like it isn’t a form response, so yay? But I wish there was something I could. Right now it’s just a really pretty rejection which almost stings more.

#WritingCommunity #AmQuerying
December 1, 2025 at 11:32 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Central Office's occupation has started. For the workers of station ND-12, life as they know it has changed forever.

But how long until they realize that?

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky
They traded goodbyes and drifted from the plaza. Fable stayed behind, watching her friends disappear into the streets. She already missed the easy laughter and shared stories. Jokes about bomb makers already felt like they belonged to someone else, to another time. Fable feared what came next, and the part she’d play in it. How long before she’d ask them to risk everything?
December 1, 2025 at 8:53 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
I like to think teenage me would be proud of where I’m at.

For those things that disappoint him, I’d remind him teenagers are stupid.
November 26, 2025 at 2:04 AM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Revision is going well so far. Turns out this isn’t all that bad when I like what I’m reading.

But how to ignore that very obvious bias so I can actually revise?
November 24, 2025 at 8:15 PM
markmakesmarkmarks.bsky.social
Fable - long-hauler, storyteller, and heart of the Break Room crew - wakes from standby at the edge of another deserted station.

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity
Chapter 11: Fable; I wish we’d found something. I hope he tells them what we saw. Fable came out of standby following a gentle ping from her Bin. She took a moment to orient herself. Not much had changed since she went into standby. The flat, rocky plane stretched in every direction. Eight-Six still pressed forward at full speed with the last load of crates on his back. The sun was behind her now, so they must have been moving most of the day. Looking forward, Fable saw why Bin had woken her up. Station GD-2 grew on the horizon.
November 21, 2025 at 4:02 PM